Adventure Gothic
by gothicjedi666
Summary: Yet another Gothic is thrown into a new life and given the chance to live out his nerdish fantasies. Only this time he's not going alone. Read on to find out what happens when a self insert fan fic writer and his reviews get to take part in the story. Personally I pity the locals. Normal warnings for my stories.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note. **

The first chapter is a bit short as its just the main character's introduction. I can't go into to much detail so early on as then there would be nothing for Gothic to discuss later with other characters

In the next chapter Gothic will enter the game and will met some of the other players and then the game starts.

For those of you who want to write for your character this chapter will show you how players are recruited. The events are being held in big cities across the world so you can talk about your own life as you travel to the big city closest to you. I will add these short chapters to this chapter so check back now and again.

**Adventure Gothic.**

**Part One. **

**London, England. The Summer of Two Thousand and Thirteen. **

The London Underground might not be the most stylish way to get around but I had to admit that it had its charms and at least it was somewhat efficient, if a little overcrowded. Given the heat and the amount of bodies packed into the compartment the journey was rather pleasant and I quickly arrived at my destination thanks to the lack of delays.

Paddington Station was its usual busy self I'd been here a few times before so I was use to it by now. Natives of the great city and London and tourists from around the world were here by the tens of hundreds and even I blended seamlessly with the crowd which was odd given my habit of wearing all black.

Right now I was regretting wearing the long black coat I favoured as while it did look cool on me the damn thing was rather heavy, and it slowed me down as I zigzagged my way through the crowds. At least I had forgone my new-rocks in favour of smaller, and more comfortable, steel toe cap boots. If I'd gone with the weightier footwear I never would have been able to keep up the pace needed to navigate the ever moving shifting masses of humanity that filled the station.

Despite my quick pace I wasn't really in a rush to get anywhere I just wanted to keep moving because I'd never been much of a people person. Large crowds made me feel uncomfortable. Not because of any phobia but because it made me feel very insignificant. I'd always wanted to be someone special, someone whose life mattered more than others, and mixing with the masses of humanity made me feel like nobody at all.

That explained my love of video games. In games you get to be the centre of attention, you can be the hero of the story and change the world, even decide the fates of millions. I'd so love to be risen above the masses in such a way. My love of such things was also why I was in London trying to make my way to some sort of convention.

A few weeks ago I had been invited to a special event via an email. At first I had been rather sceptical about the whole thing and had thought that it would involve heavy use of a credit card, but for once cynicism been unfounded.

After having gone to the trouble to check out a few boards I frequented I'd discovered that the offer was seemingly genuine . Other lovers of RPG games had been invited as well from all across the world in fact. Whatever new company was behind these conventions was very serious, they really did want people to come and try out their new products.

They had even gone as far as to pay for travel expenses in advance using vouchers that were accepted on trains, coaches and buses. I'd even been given a guide which aided me in getting to the convention centre here in London.

It was the sheer amount of effort that went to organising this world wide event that convinced me to go. Whatever was going on it was big like Comic Con big. Even if the promise of free samples and such didn't pan out I'd still consider it worthwhile just for the chance to play a few games and met some fellow Geeks. I needed a holiday anyway.

Once I was on the bus, which conveniently would stop outside the convention centre, I looked over the printouts in my hand for what must be the hundredth time.

The main attraction was a new Dungeons & Dragons game that promised players that they would feel as if they were actually there in the Forgotten Realms and not just rolling dice while moving around inch high plastic models.

To me that suggested some new video game like Skyrim an RPG which was real rich in detail and fun to play rather than say some sort of virtual reality simulator.

Smartly I didn't get my hopes up, but I did feel somewhat optimistic about the upcoming event. I'd get to spend the day having fun doing Nerd stuff before spending the evening and most of the night on the train home. I was very glad that I'd left my home so early otherwise the day would have been wasted.

Turning over the page I read the printout which talked about the new games plot.

_The Forgotten Realms: Osse_

This new D&D game was set on the mostly unknown continent called Osse. Which had until now been inhabited by a mixture of druids and other nature loving spiritualists. My guess was that this meant Hippies and other treehugging types.

The printout went on to explain that the once peaceful continent was now under threat. A great evil called simply 'The Necromancer' was leading his army of the dead on a war of conquest.

Since the Druids and other nature loving types were ill equipped to deal with an army of the dead the locals had put out a call for aid. The promise of adventure to new lands and the chance to earn glory in war was attracting hero types to the exotic continent of Osse.

There was also mention of a reward for which ever party of adventurers defeated The Necromancer. I wasn't sure if it was the character who would be rewarded or if this meant whoever won the game would be rewarded, but either way the whole thing looked rather fun and I couldn't wait to start playing.

Traffic was light so I soon made it my stop which was hard to miss given that the stop was right outside the convention centre and the event was not being promoted in a way that could be called subtle.

As I got off the bus I noticed that despite the colourful displays on the outside of the building none of the people walking by the convention centre paid it any attention.

I found that more than a little odd, but perhaps it wasn't so strange given that the building being used to host the event was large enough to used by many companies for many different things. The locals could be quite use to such things as the convention by now and so they naturally wouldn't take much notice.

Personally I thought the outside of the building was a bit of an eyesore, it was all a bit too bright and colourful for my taste, so I headed inside hoping that any decorations within were more sedate or at least more tasteful.

Once I was inside I found that it was thankfully more tame. In fact it looked much as I had expected. There were posters on all the walls and what looked to be replicas of medieval weapons on display stands, there were even boxes full of comic books and DVDs on sale. All in all it seemed to be a Nerd convention only it was focused on the Swords and Sorcery genre rather than say Star Trek.

There was only thing missing, and that was people. I couldn't see a single other person and given that the place had opened hours ago this meant that it was not a successful venture.

My gut was telling me it might be best to leave. I didn't feel as if anything was wrong per say. It wasn't as if I was in any sort of danger, but it felt odd to just stand here alone in a hall that should be holding hundreds of people.

Thankfully I wasn't alone for long.

"Hey, there" came a voice.

To the right of me was an older gentlemen dressed in such a way that he wouldn't look out of place in one of those silly renaissance fairs that only seemed to exist on television. I'd never seen anyone dressed up for one in real life and if he hadn't been the only other person in the room I'd of felt rather silly wearing my Goth clothes. Then again you can rarely go wrong in basic black.

"Hi" I replied while trying to think of something more meaningful to say.

"Where is everyone?" was what I came up with and to be fair it was a good question to ask given how empty the place was.

"There playing the game" answered the guy dressed as what I assumed he thought to be a knight.

At least his answer made some sense. If there was some new D&D video game to be played then it would attract the crowds far more than comic books, DVDs and novels.

"Would you like to play the game?" asked the reject from a historic re-enactment.

I saw no reason why not, there didn't seem to be anything happening here so I might as well go and join in with the game.

"Sure" I replied.

The dressed up Nerd passed me a clipboard and a pen. To my disappointment the form turned out to be a questionnaire. There is always a catch and quick look over the questions told me that in this case the catch was that I had to give out personal information. No doubt my email account would soon be filled with junk mail that would pointlessly try to sell me things I didn't want.

Most of the questions were about my tastes in video games, music and films, but oddly the company behind all of this didn't want my address, email or otherwise.

Perhaps they were simply collecting statistical information, trying to find out what their targeted consumer base was interested for their marketing departments.

As long as they didn't send me any junk mail or call me during dinner I didn't care what they got up to so I truthfully answered the questions as best I could.

Some of what was asked seemed be a bit odd to me. I could imagine a gaming company wanting to know what sort of super powers gamers would like to have, as that would give them an idea of what sort of characters would be popular but why did they need know my views on gods?

It the end it really didn't matter what sort of gods I'd like there to be and I filled everything in before signing my name.

As soon I finished signing my name I started to feel as all the energy in my body was being drained away. I had to grab a nearby table for support but that didn't help much as my legs were having trouble supporting my weight. They couldn't keep me for long and soon I was on the floor and then world faded away.

**Character Sheets. **

Name: Gothic

Human Male 27. Spellsword. Lawful Neutral.

Special Feat: Specialisation Is For Insects.

Being a jack all trades he can do bit of everything but isn't that skilled at anything unless he invests great amounts time and effort into that skill which would led to other skills not being developed.

**Character Bio**

Always uses a one handed weapon (small bonus for swords) His left hand is always free so he can cast novice and apprentice level Elder Scrolls Spells, and he will learn local spells later but only low level ones as he isn't a true Mage. Can wear both light and heavy armour (light armour has a small bonus) Gothic can use both a bow, but not as well as a ranger and a crossbow, (small bonus for crossbow) but not as well as an assassin.

His use of both of weapons and magic is due to the fact that his favourite set of fictional powers that he'd most like to have is that of Jedi Knight/Sith Lord.

**Personal Bio.**

Gothic (real name James) is an avid gamer and a loner like many who entered the game. Gothic suspects that the game is real and that the players have been abducted and forced to play the role of adventures by more advanced beings a bit like the film The Last Starfighter and Galaxy Quest, only with magic rather than superior science.

However he agrees with others that there is a chance that are in something like the Matrix as really it doesn't change anything, the mind make it real and if they die in Osse they will die for real.

He also sees playing the game as a chance to live out his fantasies of becoming someone both special and important. He has no strong desire to go home as he feels he isn't needed there. He will take the chance to enjoy himself when possible. He will fight and kill but takes no pleasure in it, so he will try to talk his way out of things or avoid trouble were possible.

**Written By RedTheBattler.**

**Memphis, Tennessee. United States of America, Summer of Two Thousand Thirteen.**

Its amazing how much things can change in such a short amount of time. Here I was about to live out every video gamer dream of being paid to play video games and two days ago I wouldn't have thought it was possible, well not for me anyway I didn't get this lucky, but I'd been wrong they had sent me an engraved invitation.

They had sent it to me by my full legal name and it had listed every single one on my online gaming alias. They knew my account name and main character name from World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Xbox Live account they even had my damn fanfiction tag. So much for the promises of we will not give away your personal information part of those contracts, that or this company had some very interesting and illegal methods of selecting the players for their game.

Two days ago after I had woken up in the afternoon nap, which I'd needed in order to recover from my shift of overnight stocking at Wal-Mart, I had started my usual daily tasks. Empty the dishwasher, fill the dishwasher, feed the dogs, feed the cats, make sure none of the dogs got out of the yard, put dogs back in the yard when they do, etc. It had been life as usual right up until I had gotten the mail.

Bill, Bill, You could already be a winner, Would you like to support whatever, Your subscription is almost up renew now, package address to me, Church news letter, and finally a magazine.

I didn't remember ordering anything from Ebay recently so I had to check it out when I got back inside and I found the offer of a life time. They were testing out a new video game system and needed volunteers. So here I was me a normal every day gamer being given the chance to make into the big leagues.

Understandably I was rather skeptical at first, I didn't have luck like this, but one quick check online later had found that there were dozens of people already talking about it. We were to head to the nearest major metropolis in our country. For the mid west of U.S.A. that was Memphis, Tennessee.

I packed an over night bag, called in work for vacation, told my parents and sister where I was heading and why, I also told my beloved Bridgett that I had been offered my dream job and would send word when I could. I had really enjoyed telling my Father that I had been hired by a video game company to test out their new system and game.  
(He never had been satisfied with my accomplishments or any job I held. Complained when I spent all my time playing games, complained when I spent too much time reading, complained that I sometimes didn't have a job, and when I did he still complained and said that I needed to get a better job.)

The four hour drive the next day from the Arkansas to Memphis wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the small problem that my car didn't have cruise control so my leg was on the pedal the entire trip. I was glad that they put me up in a hotel to stay at so I had time to rest before going to where the company had setup shop.

"Sir, we have arrived." stated the chauffer provided by the hotel to drive me to my destination. I was mostly sure he was an apology from the hotel for how I was treated when I first showed up at their hotel. Stepping out of the car I was immediately hit by that summer heat that I loathed and would be sweating in a few minutes.

I had been here before, I knew it, vague memories from previous summer vacation they had hosted the traveling Titanic collection and the traveling Forbidden City exhibition. Now they had banners flying about D&D games.

Entering the building I was greeted by three Security Guards, two burly bouncer types, and one nerdy tech type. I gave them my invitation and was allowed further access into the building. The bouncer Security Guards joked that they wouldn't get to throw me out on my ass like all the other uninvited gamers.

The hairs on my neck immediately stood on end once I was fully inside. It was too quiet, could barely hear the humming of the AC running and there was lack of background murmur from a group of people that should have been touring an area like this.

Looking around I could tell this place was a history of D&D franchise due to what they had on display. I could see various board games, dices, book series, figurines, if it was a D&D memorabilia then it was here.

"Yes, the quite the impressive collection we have amassed here isn't it?" spoke of voice that had me jumping for the ceiling.

I turned around to discover a . . . . well an Acolyte from the Cult of the Damned was the best description I could come up with. Remembering how many I killed over course of my adventure in World of Warcraft I would swear it was same outfit, but there were slight difference in the color scheme and the arcane runes didn't quite match up.

"So you are my guide I take it." I stated, but my on edge feeling had just gotten worse. Damn, why did it have to be a mage for a guide, especially a dark mage at that. I played Warrior/Fighter so I had a natural aversion to magic users.

"I live to serve." was the reply.

Okay the feeling of ice flowing down my back from that statement was not helping my nerves.

He pulled out a Tablet that was colored and shaped like a scroll along with a electric stylist shaped like a quill. I looked at them and the irony of technology going full circle wasn't even funny. Regardless I began filling out the questionnaire as my guide(creepy stalker type dude that he was) lead me through the exhibit.

The questionnaire started by asking me about my tastes in video games, movies, music, as well as other stuff that didn't have much to with D&D. Then followed the really odd questions like: what were my views on the gods in video games. Good, Evil, or Neutral didn't matter much to me as long as they used their damn powers to actually do something. I preferred Q, Daedra, or Aedra compared to the Powers that Be or other "Ascended Beings" that didn't use the powers they had due that whole non-interference crap.

I looked up occasionally from the questionnaire to make sure I didn't run into anything and was keeping up with my guide. At one point I had to stop and stare at one of the displays it was an iconic image of RPGs there was the valiant and noble knight standing on top of a slain dragon his sword stabbing through its head with the maiden, that had been held captive by the dragon now freed, looking up at the knight in awe.

The dragon was dead bleeding from multiple wounds, wings membrane cut up, claws and fangs shattered, and sword piercing its head. While the knight was unharmed the fairy tale prince type didn't have a scratch on him. The Dragon looked like it had fought to the death while the knight looked like he was posing for a portrait. The maiden had her dress torn and ripped, cleavage on display for the knight with the sides of her dress torn to show off her legs and her lack of shoes, but not looking anything like a prisoner held against her will by a terrible beast.

"I hate this statue and images like it." I stated while glaring at the statue. For me one of the first RPGs I had ever played was a game called Breath of Fire where the main character was from a Dragon Clan which took the form of humans in order to restrain their powers. It was a Dragon and his allies that had saved the World from a Goddess of Destruction.

"That is . . . . interesting." the creepy mage purred "I take it your read the goal of the game." he questioned as we can to the end of the tour.

"Yes go rescue the stupid pacifistic tree hippies that isolated themselves from the rest of world from The Necromancer that will turn the continent into the next Plague Lands if we cant stop him and the party that defeats The Necromancer wins the grand prize." I stated having already condensed the goal and backstory into one statement.

"Good then lets get started." He said as he put his hand on my shoulder I felt a draining sensation and was suddenly really tired . . .


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer. **

I make no claim to any intellectual property this story is done for the amusement of myself and my regular reviewers.

**Reviews.**

**Selias**

I'll be sure to mention those facts in the next chamber.

**Mayhem296**

I can't recall ever reading a D&D self insert. I do know some good D&D crossovers that can be found in my favourite stories list. If your a big Buffy fan like myself check out Tabula Avatar by Speaker-To-Customers its well written and has a clever plot. Plus unlike other Buffy fan fics it never bashes any character to extreme.

Also check out Harry Potter and the Natural 20 its very amusing because the D&D character is aware that his universe runs on a lot of rules many of which have loopholes all of which he exploits.

**the noah clans pure madness**

I don't think your character would work well enough with others to be part of a team. Might be able to use him as baddie however.

**Adventure Gothic. **

**Part Two.**

**Off The Coast Of Osse. The Merchant Ship _Free Enterprise. _Ship's Hold.**

When I returned to the land of the awake people my ears started working well before my eyes did. I could hear creaking wood, the sound of waves, and that annoying sound seagulls make at all hours of the day. For a few moments I wondered if I'd left the television on when I went to bed.

My eyes soon started to work as well but my vision so blurry that I automatically reached for my glasses and then panicked a little when I realised that not only were my glasses missing but the table they rested on was missing as well.

Weirdly my eyes seemed to focus and my vision cleared. Had it not been for the strange things I was seeing I might of taken some time to think about how I could see, but my surroundings required too much of my attention.

An arm wrapped around mine and I was gently lifted to my feat. Soon I was face to face with a man who looked a few years younger than myself who was dressed somewhat like I was in. He wore a long black coat only his was more grey than black and it was also made of a different material. The clothes beneath the coat looked more old fashioned that mine, they like something that would have been worn during the industrial revolution only not quite right for the period. Also I was pretty sure that the knife on his belt wasn't a replica it looked well used and deadly.

"I'm Corey but you can call me The Dark Avenger".

He did look like an avenger of sorts. Everything about him said 'dangerous assassin' and he didn't look as if he was merely playing a role.

"Where are we?" I asked "what happened?".

Corey smiled but it wasn't a happy smile.

"I don't know" he admitted "one minute I was signing up to play some game and the next thing I know I'm here on this ship".

The sound of waves and the motion of the floor beneath me confirmed that at least part of this guy's story was true. This was indeed a ship, and after quickly inspecting what I could see around me I deduced that it was a rather old fashioned ship one that wouldn't like out of place in those Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Another man who looked to be closer to twenty that I was came over. He was dressed like a cross between Rambo and a monk. His armour was loser than what Corey was wearing and unlike Corey this guy wasn't carrying any weapons, or at least not any that were visible.

"I'm Selias the Monk," he said in a tone of voice that sounded friendly but also a little nervous "or at least that's what the scroll says".

"Scroll?" I inquired.

Corey, AKA The Dark Avenger!, opened his coat to show a scroll so I did the same and found the item in question.

I also noticed that while I was wearing my black coat I had some sort of leather armour on underneath. It was nothing fancy but it looked sturdy enough at least and would offer some protection. I still had my jeans on but my boats had changed and there was a dagger strapped to one of them. I also had a different belt on, there was a scabbard for a short sword but no sword and I also had quiver a slung across my shoulder along with a few crossbow bolts already provided but I didn't have a crossbow.

"We've all got some basic equipment" said the forth and last person in the room "I have a bag full of weird shit but no weapon, and my scroll says I can use them for magic".

On impulse I checked the dagger strapped to my boot and discovered that it wasn't steel, or iron for that matter it seemed to be made out of bronze.

Lots of RPGs equipped you with bronze or iron weapons to start with in order to let you upgrade your equipment as the game progressed.

"So this is the game" I realised.

It was all starting to make at least at little sense and I felt rather overwhelmed about the whole thing. Which was completely understandable and not at all embarrassing even if I was about to start having a fit.

"Breathe" ordered Corey who had noticed I was about to start panicking "take deep breathes and relax. We all got scared when we realised what was going on".

"Not that we really know what's going on" added the magic user.

"That doesn't help Edric" chided Selias the Monk before he turned to me and said.

"No of us really known how we got here but it seems real enough, it could be that we got plugged into something like the Matrix".

Well that more sense that being kidnapped, physically altered and then transferred to another reality were stuff like this really happened.

"But that doesn't mean that we should act as if this isn't real" warned Selias "if we die here we could die in the real world. If it was safe they wouldn't of needed to force us to play".

I was about to ask more when someone, a big someone, then came down into the hold.

"The captain says we'll be in port in less an hour since the tide is with us and assuming the wind doesn't change".

At once I assumed the big guy was a warrior, in fact he was so big that the other fighter type behind him was hardly noticeable despite being rather large himself.

"These two are Deadmeat and Red The Battler who also goes by Alex" explained Corey "I think there going to be the tanks of this game".

I knew what The Dark Avenger meant by 'tanks', in most RPGs a tank is a fighter who purposely draws the attention of enemy attackers towards themselves in order to protect other party members. A tank can take a lot of damage and dish it out but they tend to lack ranged attacks. They also require the support of a healer in order to keep going, party members with ranged attack, such as magic users and archers, act as support for the tank weakening the enemies the tank must face with out actually entering combat.

Both Deadmeat and Red The Battler had basic starting equipment, iron armour and swords, they also had shields, mostly made out of wood, slung across their backs. They were a lot better equipped for this than I, but it could be that I had skills and powers they didn't. It really depended on what Class I was.

"We're a bit of odd group for a D&D game" I said, thinking out loud "assuming that's what this is".

"Read your scroll" advised the Monk.

I did as instructed and I was rather confused by what I saw.

Taking a seat I read all the information the scroll contained and tried to make sense of it all.

Some of it made sense. I had an inventory of all my possessions which was easy enough to confirm and I was rather impressed with the bag of holding I found in my inner coat pocket. There was nothing in it but the bag could be held in the palm of my hand but its internal space could contain more than three suitcases worth of items if I was any judge. I also had a money bag but its internal space was a mere fraction of the bag of holding, and I was willing to bet that these were just the basic models.

"Your a Spellsword," commented Selias who seemed to be the chatty one of the group "just like Apoc Pen".

I had no idea who that was but I guessed that he was up on deck trying to gather more information. Its what I would be doing if I'd been here longer.

"Apoc went on ahead," informed Deadmeat "he's riding one of those overgrown birds".

"Overgrown birds?" I had to ask.

"Like in Warcraft" answered Corey who had now retreated from the conversation for the most part.

Now I understood. In Warcraft character could ride Griffins to set destinations. If this ship was big enough it could carry some and they could be flown as scouts. That was rather clever, if a little risky.

A little too risky actually given how new we all were to this place. It could be that some of the players didn't think any of this was real. Not that they could be blamed, it was rather hard to believe that this was all actually happening.

"How did he get them to give him a bird?" asked the Monk.

"He used a Jedi Mind Trick" answered Deadmeat.

A Jedi well that was weird thing to be in D&D. It made me wonder what sort of powers I had if any.

I went back to reading over what I decided to call my character sheet. It wasn't like character sheet I'd seen before but it did tell me a lot.

My name was Gothic the Spellsword. I was a level one Spellsword apparently.

Special Feat: Specialisation Is For Insects.

That took a moment to figure out it had something to do with the Starship Trooper it was a quote by Robert A. Heinlein that had to do with idea that humans are versatile creatures able to perform a large range of roles.

Most D&D classes, or the classes used in many RPG games at least, are rather specialised and the skills a character gains are ones that fit their role. If I was to guess I wouldn't gain skills meant for any one class.

The downside would be that I would never obtain true mastery in anything. I'd never be as good as magic as a Wizard. I'd never fight as well as Warrior. And I would less stealthy than an Assassin. But on the plus side

I'd be able to fight better with weapon than magic users could. I'd be able use spells an Assassin couldn't. And I'd be much quicker on my feet than any armour wearing warrior could hope to be.

Under the powers section was a list of Elder Scrolls spells so that meant that I didn't have the Force, but I did have some magic so I wasn't too disappointed.

LVL ONE

Powers.

Voice of the Emperor

Imperial Luck

Those two powers were good and it also told me that I was an Imperial human rather than a native human which was important to remember as it meant that I'd have different racial traits than the local humans.

Flare

Healing

So I had Oblivion style spells rather than Skyrim ones. This meant that I wouldn't be shooting lightening from my fingertips but a fire based range attack could be quite helpful given that we would be facing then undead and being able heal myself, that was a literal life saver.

My Skill Bonuses were many but not speculator, on the upside I had no major weakness either so it rounded out nicely.

Overall I felt that I was rather lucky to be an Imperial Spellsword with a feat that meant that I didn't have to specialise, but something still didn't make sense.

If this was Dungeons & Dragons then why was my character from Elder Scrolls?

A Forgotten Realms game should be played by Forgotten Realms characters. I was sort of a D&D class as everyone else seemed to be but my character wasn't set up right. Also I couldn't recall there being giant birds people could ride featuring in any of the Forgotten Realms games, but they could have been in one of the many editions and then later removed.

If we were all plugged into some sort of video game Matrix type thing then we should be more consistent with setting as using character set-ups from other game would cause problems what with the suing for intellectual property and all.

No something else was going on here. It was just that had no idea what it was.

"LAND AHOY!"

The voice made me jump and without thinking about I reached for my dagger but there was no cause for alarm.

"We should go up on deck" suggested Red The Battler.

As I followed Red up to the deck I had to wonder if he was fully human, there was something about that made me weary. It was almost as if he was something much bigger than a man forced into the shape of a man. Although that could have something to do with his armour as it seemed too small for him.

Once up on deck I discovered that the ship was much bigger than the size of the hold suggested. From what I could tell it wasn't a military vessel, it didn't even have any cannons, but it was far too big to be privately owned. Most likely it belonged to a Merchant Navy of some sort like the East India Trading Company.

My theory was confirmed when I looked out to sea and saw that this ship was just one ship in a fleet. This was a major expedition of that there was no doubt and it must of cost of fortune to put it together. If all those ships had as many players on them as this one did it meant that an entire army was heading to the port city which was now coming into view.

Which actually made sense as there was suppose to be an army of the dead trying to conquer Osse.

"So if this a Matrix type thing can we get out if we finish the game" I mused out loud.

"What' in the nine ells are ya talkin about laddie".

The sailor addressing me didn't sound like an American nor did he sound English so I assumed he was a NPC (non-playable character) rather than a Player.

"I was thinking about the offered rewarded" I told the very stereotypical sailor who even had a hook for a hand.

"Oh eye" replied the sailor who I thought to have been a pirate at some point "beat that Necromancer fella and you'll be a god".

So that was the reward then. Godhood. Your character wins and becomes a god. That was easy enough to understand as a plot.

But what did it mean for the players?

If this was a virtual reality video game then did godhood mean the power to escape or was this all somehow real? If so was the reward real?

It certainly seemed to be real enough. I could taste the sea air and the ship felt real enough.

I mused on the idea that was like that film Galaxy Quest when the advanced aliens confuse reality with fiction and abduct the actors of a TV show thinking that they can really command a star ship. I wondered if something like this was happening to us. Maybe the gods of this world had used magic to bring us here to be adventurers and to deal with the Big Bad.

That was a rather silly way to go about dealing with a Necromancer. Anything powerful enough to take a person from Earth and give him everything needed to be a Spellsword could easily deal with one Dark Wizard.

Unless the Necromancer had a god protecting him, but then why not use actual heroes from other worlds or simply hire a good team of solders to deal with the problem? I couldn't imagine any Necromancer being able to handle say a team of Special Ops troops.

Even if these gods couldn't of gotten their hands on some SAS or SBS teams then why equip those they had chosen with abilities not that different from what the locals had? Why not bring in some heroes or make us superheroes?

In need of answered I looked over the scroll again and found nothing new, aside from mention of the reward. That hadn't been there before so I read it carefully.

_Upon questioning a crew member Gothic the Spellsword discovers that the reward offered for those who defeat the dreaded Necromancer is in fact elevation to godhood._

_Now he must decided if that will be his goal or if he will simply try to aid the people of Osse, as he was paid to do by the recruiter. _

Paid to do?

Double checking my inventory I remembered that I did indeed have a nice handful of silver coins. No doubt it was down payment of some sort I suspected that my character had been promised more upon arrival.

I really wanted to discuss this with those I hoped were my team-mates but now that weren't in the hold everyone seemed to be keeping to themselves. There wasn't a lot of trust between us, and for good reasons too. One or more of us could be in on the the whole thing and if they were we didn't know if that meant they would help or hinder the other players. Plus with the reward of godhood on the table there could be a lot of backstabbing going on later. The gods of this world can be good or evil so even the good people playing this game (assuming any of us were anything but neutral to start with) might go for the big prize if only to keep it from those of use who would abuse such power.

However given that the scroll said ' _those who defeat' _rather than he who defeats meant that the reward could go to a group of people, and not just one person so some team work would be needed. Still with stakes this hight it would be hard to trust others. If I did decide to go for the big prize I was going to have a hard time putting a party together.

"Want to team up and go for the prize" offered Selias the Monk.

Or maybe it wouldn't be so hard after all.

I looked Selias over and thought about what he might have to offer. He was clearly suppose to be a D&D Monk of some sort, which meant that he would be deadly in hand to hand combat and he might be able to use the energy of the human body in ways that an adventurer would find very useful. Selias had the potential to make look Bruce Lee look like Stan Lee in terms of fighting prowess, also like me he might have powers from outside this setting. Still I had to consider that I was level one, as was he most likely, so neither of us would survive long by ourselves if wandered into unfriendly territory

No doubt he was a better fighter than me but he wouldn't have my large range of skills and given that we were heading a port city my skills just might be more useful in the short term. Neither of us had much money and I could charm people which will be handy when it comes to bartering for the goods adventurers need.

With this facts in mind I knew that he'd do better to work with me until we both learned more about what was. I'd bet the fifty silver coins in my money bag that he knew this, and that his offer to team up wasn't as friendly as it sounded.

"Sure" I replied while trying to sound casual about the whole thing "normally you need at least four people to form a D&D party so we need two more for a proper party".

The port city the ship was soon going to dock would be full of adventurers so we'd be able to recruit for the team easily enough, perhaps some of the players on this ship would join us".

"If your looking for a magic user I'm your man" offered Lord Edric.

There was something about Edric that concerned me, but I had couldn't quite put my finger on it. I wasn't the trusting type at the best of times, and this guy felt dangerous, however right now I couldn't afford not to take any help that came my way.

"Okay three are better than two" I told him "what magic can you do?"

Edric flashed a charming smile that lacked any real warmth. I'd seen that kind of smile before, and I knew at once that Edric was a very, very dangerous person.

"I can summon monsters and control weak enemies" he boasted.

Despite my misgivings his skills made him too useful to pass up. Someone who could summon creatures to aid us in a fight could help to turn the tide of an entire battle, and we would need a Wizard type in order to challenge a Necromancer as sometimes only magic can beat magic. Still I'd have to keep on him and if needs be I might have kill him.

By now the ships were coming up to the docks. Boats had come out to met us and ropes were being used to guide the merchant vessel into port. The sails were coming down and everyone on board (sans the players) were looking forward to the end of what must have been a very long sea voyage.

I on the other hand was wondering how long it would be before my party got attacked. It was common plot point to force adventurers into action from the start of the game by not giving them to think things through.

Sometimes however the course of action for the player was dictated by their surroundings. The environment would force the players into certain actions limiting what they could do until the plot was already under way.

This ship was a good example as it was forcing us all to go to the port city and once we were there something else would happen to get us started on a quest.

Then again that didn't always happen. In some games your characters starting area could be quite peaceful in order to give the player a chance to acclimatise to the setting.

It could go either way and I had no way of knowing, so I'd just have to wait and see.

Or if there was a tavern close by I was going to go and get drunk, very drunk.

**Character Sheets**

**Selias **

Level One Monk. Human Male. Lawful Neutral Age 22. Hand to hand fighter with self healing powers.

Special Feat: elemental control over the earth.

Personal Bio

Still lives with his grandparents, and attending classes at the community college. Hasn't found a job yet, so he spends his time reading fanfiction, playing video games, and listening to music. All of his friends moved away for college. Lives in a rural area. Wants to live out a real "swords and sorcery" adventure, because he's so bored with regular life, but he also want the prize so he can have a long, enjoyable life with the harem made up of the beautiful women he intends to get.

**Lord Edric **

Level One Sorcerer. Human Male. Lawful Evil.

Special Feat: Your A Wizard Harry.

Edric doesn't require a patron god nor does he need to memorise spells using a spell book.

Character Bio

Prefers to have others to fight for him, to this end Edric has spells which focus on conjuring monsters, and dominating the minds of his enemies. While he is evil due to his desire to control others Edric is not destructive nor he foolish enough to turn on allies for little or no reason.

Personal Bio

As for personality when new reality sent in, besides using the mind control on any girl I feel like(still think like human, beside not many of my species around) I do the best I can to avoid direct conflict, I want to survive so I look out for myself, I summon and shoot magic from the back, I dont attack or control people I trust, but anyone else is fair game(but I make sure no one knows its me in case I need them again)(charm person), also want to be human again, draconian is nice but I want to have old body back and godhood make race bonus a moot point.

So overall I'm a manipulative bastard but knows the point of allies that can think and I can trust, think (TIM from Mass effect, but I do have friends, plus I use detect thoughts to make sure they are friends)

**Author Notes**

Character sheets will change as the story progresses for now these are just to give you some information about the characters. Since its first person narrative Gothic's opinions are just that so don't be surprised if he sees people differently than they actually are.

The personal stuff comes from the reviewers themselves and may not reflect their actually personality.

Also I'll more character sheets later.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author Note. **

**This chapter is shorter than I planned but what can you do.  
**

**Reviews **

**Selias**

I wanted to be a spellsword for this story and I always use a spellsword in Oblivion so it made sense. Plus with the versatility being a spellsword offers there's plenty of chances for this Gothic to learn powers and skills from other players.

The dragons in D&D are more like people some of them can even transform into humans and move among them unnoticed. Its unlikely that a dragon would work with the Necromancer but I could have the team partake of side quest that involves slaying a dragon. Its a dragon's soul that a Dragonborn needs after all and a Dragonborn can always learn Shouts by increasing in level.

**Lord Edric**

I like you being evil in this story because at some point my character is going to get to use the line 'curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!'

I've always wanted to use that line.

**Hagstang**

I'm using a Necromancer because I already have a Necromancer character set up to play the part.

As for the evil hippies in this chapter I mention the main character figuring out the war between the hippies and the land developers will happen after the defeat of the Necromancer. But that's another story something for the D&D god Gothic to deal with.

**DarkAvenger001**

Your character will make a few appearances but not too many as assassins aren't team players by nature.

Galaxy Quest is in my opinion a good family film, its not a great film by any means but its not given the props it deservers in my opinion.

**Z2010Deadmeat**

I think Deadmeat is a cool name but I can change it.

**Tylermech66**

You will have to wait and see.

**Knightenemy.**

I'll see if I can fit you in during a later chapter.

**Adventure Gothic. Part Three.**

**Unnamed Tavern. The Port City. Osse **

Since this entire settlement was new nothing around here had been give a proper name. Which made sense given that new people kept arriving to set up more places of business while other business packed up and left. There isn't much point in anyone naming anything if it might be here next week.

Instead of having buildings made out of stone the whole city, or at least it was a city by the standards of this world, seemed to be made up of a mixture of tents, market stalls and wooden fortifications the last of which had been set up by some of the larger merc groups in order to give the Port City some sense of security.

The only place other than the docks that had any sort of real permanence to it was the tavern. I guessed that the tavern had been here before the Necromancer had become a known threat and that the war meant it was much greater business that ever before. It certainly smelled like it was doing good business and my other four senses soon agreed.

It was little details such as the smell of a place that made me think this was all real but it seemed to be a minority opinion among the players. At least Edric and Selias seemed to have realised that they should try and take this whole thing at least a little seriously. To that end they'd decided that I was now team leader and therefore I should organise things. Edric might of just been humouring me but I got the sense that Selais at least understood that we could end up getting ourselves killed if we didn't at least try to pretend any of this was real.

The Monk was off trying to find us a rogue or fighter type who would be willing to join our team and play the part of a tank. Edric had vanished upstairs with one of the tavern wenches not that long ago and while I was a little worried about that it was none of my business really. I doubted he'd get robbed and sexually transmitted diseases weren't a big deal with you had a scroll of _Cure All _on your person.

As for me I was trying to figure out why the food tasted so bland. The stew I was tucking into had a nice texture and it was filling but it lacked any real flavour. That could be due to the lack of meat into the dish as the locals were all peace loving plant eaters or it could be that they had no spices to spare.

It took a while but I figured it out the reason for the odd taste was that this food was natural it had no chemicals in it unlike the food back home.

That was a bit worrying as it meant I could have to endure some nasty withdrawal symptoms as while I hadn't been taking any hard drugs (legal ones or otherwise) I was a smoker and I drank liquids rich in caffeine. I'd quit smoking once before I remembered how awful it had been, if I had to it again while fighting for my life it would be much worse.

Then again I could be worrying about nothing. My body wasn't the same as it had been yesterday and if it was a new one or just my real body which had been heavily modified then there might not be a problem.

Still I had a right to be concerned as chemical addictions rely more psychology than anything else. Someone with strong willpower should be fine but looking around I didn't think my fellow Players were that strong willed. One of them was in corner crying and another Player looked to be in a state of shock, she was just staring at the wall.

In contrast a few Players seemed to be getting into the spirit of things. Humans adapt after all and while some would die because they failed to do some people would not only survive they would flourish in this new environment.

I couldn't speak for the rest of my team but I intended to be one of those who flourished. In fact I intended to achieve godhood because if your going to play a game you should always play to win.

"Gothic, I found us a forth" reported Selias.

The Monk quickly explained that he had been able to convince Red the Battler, who now preferred to be called Alexander, to join us.

Personally I would of preferred a rogue or a thief but a meat-shield could be useful so I said nothing about my preferences.

"Good work" I said to the man I called the Monk "Once we find Edric we can start looking for a quest and gaining some XP".

I'd already gotten to level two simply by arriving at the Port City but while levelling up is easy to begin with I knew it would get harder later as more and more XP would be needed. At least I'd gotten an increase to my Speechcraft skill and a spell to conjurer up a dagger for my troubles.

If the other players had increased in power they weren't saying and I didn't blame them as we still knew so little about each other. Trust freely given is foolish I'd have to earn my teams respect by leading them. Assuming of course that Selias and Edric did actually want me to be team leader on a permanent bases.

"I don't like that Edric guy" opinionated Alexander.

Neither Selias or I rushed to Edric's defence. There was something a little off about the magic user, but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was aside from the fact that he seemed to be evil. I could be a nasty person at times so I couldn't judge too much and in any case it could just be that Edric was putting on an act as a way of handling the odd situation we were all in. Some people used humour to protect themselves emotional and others used antisocial behaviour to do so. Really Edric could be a very nice person under the surface. However concerns aside I needed his help I wasn't going to kick him out of the group unless he gave me a good reason too.

"What do you think Sam?" I asked of Selias using his real name rather than the one on his character sheet scroll.

The New Englander just shrugged. He didn't seem to much care, perhaps he was just eager to start playing the game.

Wondering how late it was getting by reflex I checked my watch even though it was pointless to do so since we weren't even on Earth never mind in my local time zone. In fact the watch was completely useless here since I didn't have anything to set it by and even if I did there was no way for me to find how long a local day was. If it was a twenty-four day then having the watch would make sense but as it was the device was worthless. Perhaps I could sell it as even if it didn't serve any purpose on this world some merchant might buy it simply a curiosity that could be sold to a collector somewhere in the more civilized parts of this world.

I'd already checked my pockets for anything else of mine and found nothing. Gone was my phone, my wallet and my cigarettes. Which was for the best really as my phone was also useless here as was my wallet since the locals used their own money, and as for the cigarettes well I wasn't craving a smoke right now so smoking the ones I'd had would of just addicted me to them again.

At least I had a few personal items on me, aside from the watch. I had my skull ring and my star wars themed dogtags. Both of these items were made of cheap metal but on this world and to the right buyer they were worth more than gold merely because they were designs not known to this world.

However even if I was offered a good price I might not sell them as in games like this its possible to get your personal effects enchanted with magic. If I could arrange it I would much prefer to have my own property enchanted rather than wear something once belonging to another.

Taking a drink of what passed for beer in these parts I began wondering when we'd come under attack.

A small girl dressed in rages wandered past me and said.

"They mostly come out at night... mostly".

Well that answered that question.

It was still light now so that meant we were safe from most kinds of undead as lot of them disliked sunlight and to things like vampires it was often fatal.

"I think we should do our shopping now" I told the other two adventures in my party "I get the feeling that it won't be safe come nightfall".

Alex and Sam nodded their agreement as they had also heard the small girl, and like me they took the warning seriously.

"Meet me back here before dark" I sort of ordered.

I had little experience in leading teams but for now, at least, everyone in my party seemed happy to follow my commands. Perhaps because I at least had something that resembled a plan.

"We've got basic equipment, but we will need supplies" I pointed out "something to carry drinking water in and food is most important. There's bound to be some sort of field rations we can buy".

Red and the Monk went their separate ways and I trusted them to took after themselves. Really they were not better suited to surviving this place than I was so it was just as likely that I'd get myself killed at there as they would.

When I got outside the sun was overhead so that meant that it was likely around midday. This was good as it gave me some sense of how much time had passed. The ships must of arrived before lunch time which meant we had half of the daylight left. Hopefully that would be more than enough time to do a supply run.

Like in any place where more than a handful of humans (and this case elves and dwarfs as well) spend any length of time there were people trying to sell stuff. Merchants from all over this world had set up stalls and were attempting to make enough profit to justify the long sea voyage it takes to get here.

As planned I sold my watch and got a pretty good price for it. More than expected actually because while people had sold some personal effects few had sold watches and none of those displayed at the stalls were digital. My watch was quite new but it was based upon older designs and was really just sophisticated example clockwork rather than something powered by batteries.

As far as I could tell no one from Earth had sold anything electronic to any of the merchants that I spoke with. Given that we all needed money badly this could mean that none of us had anything electronic to sell. Perhaps whoever was behind this event didn't want anything to anachronistic to be introduced.

Not that there was too much danger of us messing around with the development of the natives as contrary to what most science fiction tells you most people are completely incapable of supplying more primitive cultures with their worlds advanced technology. You can't simply give an example of twentieth century technology to medieval people and expect them to backwards engineer it as producing modern day technology requires not only the right industrial base, but also people capable of understanding the science behind the technology. Most people have little idea of how modern day things actually work and even they did they wouldn't have the tools needed to recreate the devices anyway. This is why we write so many books about science as they are needed to educate people to the point were they can sustain our level of technology.

Ah well perhaps I could at least introduce the idea of the sandwich as they didn't have those here.

At least I had enough money to buy supplies. I managed to bargain well (not doubt thanks to my high speechcraft skill level) and I got my hands on a small bag of holding which had a weight limit but no limit on size. It was more than strong enough to hold a water canteen, some wrapped up food, and what past for a sleeping bag.

I even managed to get myself a crossbow but it was rather disappointing as while it looked well maintained it had no enchantments nor did it come with any bolts.

From what I remembered about playing D&D there were things out there that could only be harmed by enchanted weapons. The magical enhancement didn't have to be a great one, a spell merely meant to keep the blade sharp would sometimes do, but they were needed and my blade wasn't enchanted either.

However I didn't worry too much as I had my magic spells. Even a weak fireball could be quite dangerous to the undead as they were often very flammable. Also in a bit of cleverness I found a priest of one of the gods worshipped in other parts of the world and slipped a few coins in exchange for him blessing my equipment.

The priest also sold me a bit of information that explained why the local population (made up of many powerful druids and other nature lovers) needed our help.

Apparently the natives of this land didn't worship any gods. They had a system of reincarnation which had served them well for thousands of years. But while the druids and such were more than skilled enough to see off raiders and pirates they weren't that effective against the undead.

The most potent of spells to use upon the creations of a Necromancer came from the gods. If you have no gods you have clerics, and without clerics you have few spells that great for dealing with the dead.

This was what had brought the priest to these shores and it was also why the reward was godhood. The hippies didn't want to worship anyone but given the war many of thousands of people were going to be settling this land and they would need gods. The other deities had more than enough to deal with outside of Osse so in order to ensure that another otherworldly menace didn't take over from the Necromancer then Osse was going to need some gods.

More so they needed gods of good, neutral and evil in order to ensure some balance. Now I understood why I needed Edric and perhaps another evil Player on my side. It was going to take a team of people with mixed alignments to take down this Necromancer and then rule Osse as it new gods.

I could also see how the future gods would have a hard time of things. If the locals wouldn't worship them due to be nature loving dirty hippies then the pantheon-to-be was going to need to keep the outsiders here in order to get their recommend daily supply of prayer.

In my mind it was doubtful that the native nature lovers of this land wanted the outsider here now, but they did need help. When the danger was past there'd soon be another war as the locals would be greatly offended when the newcomers started to try and develop the land in order to set up farms and the other things civilizations needed.

This would of course led to violence, as things often do, the only way to kick the newcomers out would be to drive them out.

If I did win the prize and end up being a god I'd have to lend my support to those who worshipped me and that would certainly be those who tried to develop the land.

I had visions of shape shifting druids and magical hippies fighting lumberjacks, miners and builders. It almost made me laugh but the sad fact that it would one day be reality (assuming that the Necromancer didn't win) stopped me.

Still I could comfort myself somewhat by remembering that this future state of affairs would be a million times more preferable to the future of this land if the Necromancer won. Better a war between ecolovers and developers rather than a kingdom of corpses.

In thanks for this information I gave up one of my few remaining silver coins and headed back to the tavern.

The shopping trip and information gathering had taken longer than expected and afternoon was making its way towards become evening.

Given that I really, really didn't want to be out after dark my team and I had to find somewhere to shelter for the night. If we didn't we wouldn't be around to see morning.

**Character Sheet. **

**Red The Battler AKA Alex.**

Male. Human. Lawful Neutral. Fighter.

Personal Bio

Alexander, usually shortened to Alex (though in RPGs prefers the full use of his name) is early 20s graduated from a private high school, spent a few semester in college before finding out that it wasn't for him. Works overnight stocking at Walmart (mostly out of the fact that he isn't a people person), lives with parents due to the economy, gets harassed by father for not having a better job.

Character Bio.

Alexander's main goal in this world is to become a Dragon Knight and grow beyond in power similar to the main character from the Breath of Fire games or Divinity 2: Ego Draconis. Alexander wont get along well with Dragon Slayers or Dragon Hunters (especially if the Hunter or Slayer is wearing dragon scale armor that ,judging from the size of the scales, made it from the scales of a hatchling or child dragon) and is cautious about any quest that involves dragons.


End file.
